I slept like a log. Yeah, didn’t moved even a bit, and a sound sleep. I was woken up by the call of my name. OH! Its already 5:45, had to get going. But the blanket was so warm and so nice. By looking at the floor, I could make out the coldness. After much persuasion I got up, ran to get my shoes. Yeah it was ice cold. Brushed and wore layer after layer of clothing to protect from the cold, we left for the park. The weather was cold outside. Not drinking tea is sometimes not a boon, but then I am happy I am not addicted to it anymore. My hubby dear was sure that we will sight a tiger today, may what come. I was like ok, what’s the big deal about this tiger sighting. Lets enjoy the forest. We completed the formalities and off we went inside the park. I was determined to make a mental note of all the creatures I see. This time we were accompanied by a different guide. His name was Joseph. He seemed more excited than us about the safari. There were total of 17 tracks or routes inside the forest, where we can explore different trees and creatures. We saw 1 owlet sitting at the same tree hollow. Guess the others might be fast asleep, inside the hollow. We took a different track and as were moving ahead, Joseph kept informing us about the trees and birds. There was a tree from which we extract gum. He also, showed us the Ghost tree. Even he kept an eye on the track, looking for pugmarks. We heard a deer call and we started following the sound. The forest was dense in this part and we wouldn’t be able to figure out where the tiger might be hiding. The sound became louder as we approached and it stopped suddenly. We stopped and waited. Our driver, Raju thought the tiger can come out of the other exit of the dense stretch. We went to that exit, and waited. We kept going to and fro from this exit to the previous exit for almost 8-10 times, still no luck. Later, we left to have breakfast at the forest canteen. We had packed aloo parathas. It tasted authentic, and awesome. From there we went back to our rooms, depressed. And soon, it was time for the next safari. I slept for sometime and woke up fresh for the safari. We had lunch as usual, was awesome. We reached the entry spot, when Raju told that the tiger emerged from the dense stretch where we were circling for so many times and walked along the tracks. Damn, we missed it. Even I was getting restless now. We were after the tiger and it was showing attitude to us by hiding behind the bushes. We went ahead with the next safari. A different guide again. He was not at all excited or enthusiastic. Never mind. Raju was equal to a guide as he knew much more than a driver would know about the creatures. He informed us that we would be visiting the same place as that in the morning, what if the tiger might still be over there, waiting for us. As we entered, we saw a bird, named Red-wattled lapwing. This bird, with a red beak, has its nest on the ground and is camouflaged in such a way that no one will be able to figure out. When its nest is in danger or on the verge of someone noticing it, it will walk with its one wing pointing downwards, showing as if it is hurt to distract the hunter. Simply awesome! Its sound is like saying ‘did he do it’, saying it a bit . As we were going ahead, I saw a bird and wow, I could identify it. Racket-tailed drongo, that’s my first bird whose name I knew when I saw it. It had a long tail and it was dark. Before this, all the dark and medium sized birds were crows, larger birds were eagles and small birds were sparrows. Now I know the difference. We reached the same place where the tiger had emerged earlier that day, but it was nowhere to be found. We saw the pugmarks, but they got lost after a few steps. The safari ended with nothing special happening. The guide was also not at all informative.
End of Day 2 and still no tiger sighting. A little depressing.
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